1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates generally to cannons and firearms, more particularly to a method of firing projectiles there from. This invention is applicable to all types of arms.
2. Background Art
Firearms are known to have appeared in Europe in the fourteenth century. The usage of propellant charge energy to propel projectiles has begun a new era in the military. This led to the introduction of artillery and, right after that, small arms. These early types of arms comprised an iron or bronze tube (i.e. a barrel) with two ends, one of which was tightly closed. Loading of such firearms was done by placing a certain amount of propellant (gunpowder) into the barrel bore close to the closed end and then introducing a projectile into the barrel. Firing of the propellant was done by igniting it via a small opening in the barrel at the closed end. With minor improvements, this method of firing of firearms was used till the nineteenth century when a unitary cartridge was invented.
The invention of the cartridge initiated the development of magazine firearms and, right after that, automatic firearms. Even though the creation of automatic firearms provided a solution to the problem of rapid firing, such basic qualitative characteristics of firearms as precision and small projectile dispersion still have not gained any significant improvement. The best types of automatic firearms at the beginning of the twenty-first century are inferior in these characteristics to ordinary rifles at the end of the nineteenth century. This is due to the fact that the method of firing of automatic firearms still has its inherent flaws: at the beginning of projectile movement in the barrel bore during firing of a cartridge, the firearm (i.e. the barrel, breech bolt, frame, etc.) gets displaced. The inconsistency in the angles of departure (i.e. the angles at which projectiles leave the muzzle) from shot to shot causes their dispersion. The greater the projectile energy or impulse, the greater the dispersion.
The problem of significant projectile dispersion can partially be solved by increasing the firearm weight, which is almost never desirable. An alternative approach to reducing the dispersion is to decrease the distance between the barrel centerline and the center of mass of the firearm, or between the center of mass of the firearm and that of the operator. This reduces the moment arm of the force that appears upon firing (commonly referred to as the recoil force). However, such reduction of the moment arm adversely affects other important qualities of the firearm, such as its stability before firing, unsatisfactory placement of mechanisms, poor design, etc. In modern firearms, the magnitude of the force that influences the firearm displacement before the projectile has left the muzzle is reduced by extending this force in time. This approach only partially solves the problem since the displacement of the firearm prior to the projectile leaving the muzzle is still inherent to such firearm designs.
An important weakness of most existing types of arms is the fact that they are engineered by the basic principles set forth centuries ago regarded as immutable. The presence of a breech locking mechanism not only presents serious limitations on the achievable accuracy, but also makes the arm significantly complicated in construction which adversely affects its reliability, and results in high manufacturing costs.
Against the foregoing background, the present invention was developed.